Forums > Social Chat > Movie for philosophical kiddies

Posted: 29th Apr 2003
Talking about films, i saw one the other day which was fantastic. Called 'MEMO' about a guy who lost his ability to create new memories, so he has to tatoo stuff on his body all the time to remind him of thingz. I wont say any more, it'll give the plot away, but a really good film, try it!

Only when the last tree has died
and the last river has been poisoned
and the last fish has been caught
will we realise that we
cannot eat money.

Cree Indian, 1909

Posted: 29th Apr 2003
In the states, the movie is called "Memento". Very good, I agree, although a bit twisted and usually requires more than one viewing to grasp most of it.

Posted: 29th Apr 2003
that'd be memento then (its called that in the uk too) wicked film.
you can watch it in chronological order if you have the dvd - not as good a film but quite a cool option. i always wanted to do that with pulp fiction.

the same guy that made memento has another film out for rent just now - insomnia. can't comment tho cos i haven't seen it.

pi made me think quite a lot but maybe not quite as much as lynch's 'lost highway'.

"i see you at 'dis cafe.
i come to 'dis cafe quite a lot myself.
they do porridge."
- tim westwood

Posted: 29th Apr 2003
ohhh, Insomnia was a good movie too - but definitely much more normal than Memento.

Posted: 29th Apr 2003
sorry, yes it is momento. I had to watch it for my Postmodernism lecture! i'm still not sure why though!. If anyone can explain, please do.

Only when the last tree has died
and the last river has been poisoned
and the last fish has been caught
will we realise that we
cannot eat money.

Cree Indian, 1909

Posted: 30th Apr 2003
One of my favourite parts of Waking Life is Timothy "speed" Levitch's monologue...

On this bridge, Lorca warns, "Life is not a dream…beware…and beware…and beware…" And so many think because then happened, now isn't. But didn't I mention that the ongoing WOW is happening right now? We are all co-authors of this dancing exuberance where even our inabilities are having a roast. We are the authors of ourselves co-authoring a gigantic Dostoyevsky novel starring clowns. This entire thing we're involved with called the world is an opportunity to exhibit how exciting alienation can be.

Life is a matter of a miracle that is collected over time by moments flabbergasted to be in each other's presence. The world is an exam to see if we can rise into the direct experiences.
Our eyesight is here as a test to see if we can see beyond it. Matter is here as a test for our curiosity. Doubt is here as a exam for our vitality...

Thomas Mann wrote that he would rather participate in life than write a thousand stories. Giocamettie was once run down by a car and he recalled falling into a lucid faint, a sudden exhilaration as he realized that at last something was happening to him. An assumption develops that you cannot understand life and live life simultaneously. I do not agree entirely which is to say I do not exactly disagree. I would say that life understood is life lived.

But the paradoxes bug me...and I can learn to love and make love to the paradoxes that bug me. And on really romantic evenings of self, I go salsa dancing with my confusion.

Before you drift off...don't forget, which is to say remember, because remembering is so much more a psychotic activity than forgetting: Lorca in that same poem said that the iguana will bite those who do not dream. And as one realizes that one is a dream figure in another person's dream: THAT is self-awareness.

Posted: 30th Apr 2003
Yay - saw that in the local vid store a couple of weeks ago. Looked pretty cool but was on mission to get another vid at the time. Thanks for rec. Think I will lay me hands on that

Come faeries, take me out of this dull world, for I would ride with you upon the wind and dance upon the mountains like a flame.

- W B Yeats

Posted: 30th Apr 2003
Which begs the question (In the Western religions anyway) of validation, Robert Michael, if God created the universe, who is to say we are not just fantasy characters in his dream? Interesting thought. But would that make God a paticipating observor among us, or a watcher? Is all of what we term reality just a dream? Or, along the lines of the overshadowing theme of the movie, perhaps the old phrase "God is dead." wouldn't be so far from the truth, eh?

Haha, the perverbial mind screw. Maybe we just live in an endlessly cascading set of dreams, and we become god by dreaming ourselves before waking into what is just another dream perpetuated by "God" which is just a normal person in real reality, which is just actually a dream in the real real reality...